Barefoot Bloggers- Beatty's Chocolate Cake

Allow me to cut to the chase...This cake was AWESOME! Tonight the Barefoot Bloggers are baking another cake, and this one came out much better than the last one.
The last cake had me wondering who in their right mind would even bother to make a cake from scratch when the box mixes are sooooo much better.

Well, not tonight. This was one of the most rich, decadent, fabulous, chocolatey, yummy, awesome cakes I've ever had. Certainly the best I've ever made.

It wasn't all that hard. I will admit I baked the cake last night and frosted it tonight because I didn't have the time to make it all on the same day.

The recipe is unique in that it calls for buttermilk and brewed coffee. If you watch Ina's show, she always hypes up how coffee brings out the chocolate flavor. I was happy to finally have a reason to test that theory. She's right. You don't taste the coffee at all. All you taste is the yummy goodness of the extra rich superbly delicious chocolate.

There are not enough superlatives in the world to describe this cake!

Mary from Passionate Perserverance , you really picked a winner tonight! Thanks!!!

Birthday Sheet Cake a.k.a "The Brick"

Have to admit, wasn't all that excited when I saw that the two Barefoot Bloggers recipes for September were cake. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE cake. It's not that. It's just that I wasn't really in the mood to make a Birthday Sheet Cake, especially given we don't have a birthday to celebrate tonight.
I decided to cut this recipe in half because 12x18 is simply too much cake for a family of four.
So, let's start with the positives on this recipe- the chocolate ganache frosting is really, really good. I would make it again without hesitation for future cake recipes. It was rich, glossy, delicious. I may use a mix of dark and milk chocolate instead of all dark. It was awesome.
The cake itself, not so great. I am blaming myself for this and not the actual recipe. I have been making Ina Garten's recipes forever, and they rarely let me down. This cake turned out really bad. It was way too dense. Not light and fluffy. Not moist. It was dry and didn't taste quite right. After the fact (hindsight is 20/20 as they say...) I went to Food Network's website and read the reviews and apparently this is a common issue with this cake and many readers had to adjust the baking soda down. Had I done that, I'm sure this cake would have been great!

Oh well, you win some, you lose some!

I certainly hope that Susy of Everyday Gourmet had better results than I did!!!

White Pizza with Arugula

Tonight's Barefoot Bloggers recipe is White Pizza with Arugula.
I was pretty excited to try this. Not because I hadn't had white pizza before, but because it's really not one of my favorite things (yeah, that's something to be excited about, having to make something you don't like for dinner...). I certainly would never order it up at a pizza place, let alone actually try my hand at making it.
I should begin by saying that sharp cheeses like goat cheese and fontina, both of which were called for in this recipe, are not on my top list of favorites. I am not a huge fan of spicy ingredients like red pepper flakes. I'm not a huge lover of garlic, either. This wasn't looking good.
Nonetheless, we (hub helped out tonite!)stuck to the recipe exactly as written in "Barefoot Contessa:Back to Basics". The ONLY exception being that we didn't make the pizza dough from scratch. We bought it. I've been so busy at work lately, and unfortunately I didn't have time tonight to proof dough and wait for it to rise before we can eat. If I had made this over the weekend, then I definitely would have made the dough from scratch.
The result- an awesome pizza full of ingredients that I don't normally like, but really loved in this pizza. I would make this again for sure. It was that good.
Recipes such as this are the reason I joined the Barefoot Blogger's food blog community. I wanted to get out of my cooking rut and try things that I normally wouldn't.
Best regards to Andrea of Nummy Kitchen for picking this awesome recipe!!! GREAT CHOICE!!!

Barefoot Blogger's - Peach and Blueberry Crumbles

I have to say, this is a very easy recipe, and one that I will be making for a long time to come.

I decided to cut the recipe in half, and to make it in one large dish instead of individual ramekins. While I like the idea of each person having an individual dessert all to themselves, "family style" seems to work best for us these days!

The only part of the recipe that I did not cut in half was the crumble part. I had gone to Barefoot Bloggers and read the reviews ahead of time, and nearly all of them said that there wasn't enough crumble, so I left well enough alone!

Anyway, the resulting dessert was a yummy, gooey, fruity, warm melts your heart dish that frankly was way too hot for such a warm evening. Once cold tomorrow, it will be MUCH better!

Thanks so much to Aggie of Aggie's Kitchen for choosing this classic dish to try!!!

Here are some pics of the work in process:

Barefoot Bloggers- Pasta w/Sundried Tomatoes

aka the world's shortest, most boring post and no pictures, either :(((

This was a tremendously easy, colorful, and delicious dish. I only wish I had the pictures to show for it. They were wiped out! Grrrr.

Anyway, I enjoyed this dinner quite a bit. I make a variation of it on a pretty regular basis in the summer. The addition of the red wine and olive oil based vinagarette with capers and sundried tomatoes really added some much needed punch to this.

I omitted the black kalamata olives. I love olives, but thought the flavor might be a bit overpowering and would basically cancel out the tomato flavors that were going on.
Also, I chose not to add oil to the cooking water for the pasta. I never do that, so why start now.

Anyway, here's the recipe!

Pasta With Sun-Dried Tomatoes from Barefoot Contessa Family Style, 2002

1/2 lb fusilli pasta
Kosher salt
Olive oil
1 pound ripe tomatoes diced
3/4 cup "good" black olives like kalamata
1 pound fresh mozzarella
6 sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained and chopped

Dressing:

5 sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained
2 tbs red wine vinegar
6 tb extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, diced
1 tsp capers, drained
2 tsp kosher salt
3/4 tsp freshly ground blk pepp
1 cup freshly grated parmesean
1 cup packet basil leaves, julienned

Cook pasta in boiling salted water according to instructions on pkg. Drain well. Plaace the pasta in a bowl and add the tomatoes, olives, mozz, and chopped sun-dried tomatoes.

For the dressing, combine the sun-dried tomatoes, vinegar, olive oil, garlic, capers, salt and pepper in a food processor until almost smooth

Pour the dressing over the pasta, sprinkle with Parmesean cheese and basil, toss well.

Cherry Almond Granola

This is my favorite granola recipe! I have made it many, many times over the last 3 or 4 years. I had the day off with the boys today, so I decided to make a batch. Goes great with yogurt, and really great on vanilla ice cream!

Barefoot Contessa's Cherry Almond Granola- this is a modified version of the original.

Oven- 350 F

3 Cups Rolled Oats (not instant)

1 Cup Slivered Almonds

1 Cup Coconut

1 tsp cinnamon

2-3 tbs honey

1-3 tbs canola oil (you may or may not need this much. Ina calls for 1/3 cup- way too much)

1 cup dried cherries, cut into small pieces

Mix up all the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Add the cinnamon and mix into dried stuff.

Add honey and oil, mix again

Spread out into one layer on a large sheet pan

Bake for about 10 minutes- stirring occasionally

Add the cherries to the mix, and bake again for about 5-8 more minutes.

Let cool thoroughly and enjoy!!

Barefoot Bloggers- Gazpacho

I joined Barefoot Bloggers with hopes that I would get out of the "same-old-same-old" routine that I've found myself in when it comes to meals. This week's Barefoot Bloggers recipe of Gazpacho certainly helped in that regard! Strange but true, I've never actually made Gazpacho. If I had known it were this easy to make a healthy and delicious soup (not to mention beautiful-looking!) , I would have done so much sooner!! Now, my hubs is not a "tomato soup" kind of guy, and my 3 year old is pretty picky about what he eats. My one year old, well, he's even pickier. I don't think this is the kind of meal you feed a baby who's just weaning off of baby food anyway!
Given all this, I decided to cut the recipe in half because I knew I would most likely be the only one eating it. I was pleasantly surprised to see Greg try it and say that he likes it!! I made it the night before I served it, and let me say it was flavor-filled and really delicious!!! I brought it in to work for lunch the next day. It made a fabulous alternative to my usual mixed greens salad. I felt like I was doing something really good for myself by making something so jam-packed with veggies and anti-oxidants. I consider myself a pretty healthy eater and this fits right in with the kinds of foods I enjoy on a regular basis.
I didn't make many changes to the recipe at all. I am not a huge fan of using a ton of garlic in my dishes (thus the Chicken w/40 Cloves of Garlic will most likely be a "pass" week for me :)...so I used even less than called for. I was out of white vinegar (must have used the last of it at Easter to color the eggs!) so I substituted Apple Cider vinegar. I don't think you can really tell what kind of vinegar is in there, as long as it's not something really distinct and strong like Balsamic. Also, I decided to partially peel the cucumber, even though it said not to.
All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by how easy and delicious this recipe was!!
Big shout-out to Meryl of "My Bit of Earth" for this week's selection! Great choice!!!


Gazpacho from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, 1999


Ingredients:
1 hothouse cucumber, halved and seeded, but not peeled
2 red bell peppers, cored and seeded
4 plum tomatoes
1 red onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 cups tomato juice
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup good olive oil
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper


Directions:
Roughly chop the cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes, and red onions into 1-inch cubes. Put each vegetable separately into the food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse until coarsley chopped. Do not overprocess!!
After each vegetable is processed, combine them in a large bowl and add the garlic, tomato juice, vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper.
Mix well and chill before serving. The longer the gazpacho sits, the more the flavors develop.
Serves 4-6